(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

From here on out, i will post in this journal at least once every seven days, so that if eight days go by and i haven't posted, you will know i've been "disappeared."

This sounds kind of drastic and paranoid even to me, but the law passed by the Senate yesterday allows the Department of Defense to declare anyone, anywhere, to be an "unlawful combatant," US citizen or not, in actual contact with actual terrorists or not, in actual possession of weapons or not. All you have to do is be judged to have given "aid or comfort" to terrorists. According to many right wingers, all you have to do to qualify on this count is to criticize the president. I've done that plenty of times and i'm not going to go back and hide all those journal entries, so i'm just as likely to disappear as anyone.

Comments

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

It might be a good idea for everyone in the left blogosphere to make a similar resolution.

[kitkatlj.livejournal.com]

What law is that? I just subscribed to RSS feeds of the senators & congresspeople I feel like I can write to (either registered voter or able to reference living there) and would like to check out how they voted.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Check out pecunium's LJ for a breakdown of the law and who voted for it.

[layitlarge.livejournal.com]

Watching that made me sick yesterday. I watched it on C-span and the arguements for it were nothing but that republican fear bullshit they've been spewing to cover their asses since the begining of the war. *sighs* They know they can't legally do anything with the people they are holding, because the CIA wants out of the whole thing, so this is just their way of being able to hold these people illegally forever.

Annnnd I have a very out Muslim girlfriend...Yayyy!

[xiane.livejournal.com]

I just added you, after two references from misfitina to wise and insightful posts you recently made. I am watching what is happening in this country with baited breath and fists clenched in fear. I really appreciate your courageous strength in keeping these entries public. Thank you.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Swiping and linking.

-River Curtis-Stanley, proud member of the Left Blogosphere

[sammhain.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's paranoidat all, as ceilede was telling me last night, Bush has already done a bunch of things that she didn't think he would be able to before his administration is up.

We've actually moved up our plans to move just sowe can be around people who will notice if we dissapear theday it happens instead of weeks after. I think this is a great idea.

[agent139.livejournal.com]

Do you have a link to more info on this legislation?

[alobar.livejournal.com]

I doubt I'd have to wait 8 days to find out that you have been disappeared. I suspect that I, along with many people I know, will all be in those detention camps FEMA built instead of helping hurricane victims return home.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

If we're lucky enough to wind up in the same place.

If You Are Arrested...

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

...It just may be YOUR case which the U.S. Supreme Court will use to overturn this law. And I promise you, it WILL be overturned; it's blatantly unconstitutional, and even a Republican court will have to recognise it.

On the other hand, if they don't, we will all know that fascism is truly ascendant in Amerika.

Re: If You Are Arrested...

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

This message was mirrored on a couple of other blogs throughout the day, and someone asked, what should we do if a blogger is "disappeared"?

Well, ostensibly, there's not much anyone *can* do. I don't expect anyone to risk their health or life for me. Maybe someone could get word to Amnesty International, i would be grateful for that.

I only hope that if leftists do start disappearing that people will be aware of it, because awareness is probably the best weapon against the secret police state. And if i'm sitting in a cell somewhere for my beliefs, i will take comfort in not being alone or forgotten. (If i survive.)

Re: If You Are Arrested...

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

But to address your point directly, the courts had the chance to prevent a law like this when they took on the cases of Jose Padilla and Salim Hamden. Instead, Hamden v. Rumsfeld essentially rolled out a red carpet for the act in question.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

I find it difficult to get very worked up over this bill - it isn't anything that hasn't already been going on for some time.
Our rights vanished a long time ago.

[x-bluerose-x.livejournal.com]

Welcome to 1984:

"People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annhilated: vaporized was the usual word."
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 1

[chimpstop.livejournal.com]

Your disappearance would be a done deal if you converted to Islam this weekend...White Americans turning toward Mecca is the biggest fear.
There's a definite cultural show down between EuroAmeriKan Khristianity and Islam that is only going to get worse...I see at least one if not all three of the "Holy Cities" getting the pavement treatement with some body's pocket nuke.
Ah, but if you have ever hung out with Sufis the unmarked black van with no license plate is parking just down the street from your house.
Does your house own a coyp of V for Vendetta yet?
(heah...two of my clients...now just one, since the other one decided to use in house talent...practice Islam...the former one even gave me a long talk about it one day, and definitely DID NOT understand what Jews and practicing Judaism was about...not that he was AntiSemetic...but it was almost like a Texan friend of mine thinking Halal and Kosher meats would be polar opposites of each other.
I Blame the British Empire and it's departure for all the current levant and surroundings woes we see...

[ubiquity.livejournal.com]

What can we do? I feel so helpless and powerless. I worry that Guantanamo Bay is going to become Auschwitz II, in my own country, and that there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. The politicians don't listen to us, and nobody seems to care enough to revolt. And even if we left the country, what good would that do?

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Actually i think that revolting is a horrible idea. It won't work, it will just get a lot of innocent people killed and would only worsen the oppression.

I think the best thing would be for people to detach from the apparatus as much as possible. Buy things locally, or from friends within a mutual aid society, that sort of thing.